DANCING TREES is the open air, dance theater performance by the DAH Theatre, which deals with the importance of preserving trees and performed regulary in the Student Park, Belgrade. Realized in cooperation with the Dance Institute in Belgrade, it includes 6 performers, video works, composed music and aims to sensitize the audience and encourage initiatives in defense against excessive tree felling.
One of the inspirational sources is the book by German forest engineer Peter Wohlleben, “The Hidden Life of the Trees” together with other sources and researches. The performance will use the facts about the importance of the trees together with a poetry and magical world of trees, interwoven with memory, communication and breathing that releases oxygen – so necessary for the human survival.
Trees not only provide us with oxygen, they are also important for our spiritual and physical health. In which ways awareness of that importance can be raised? Our show is also one of the ways one can choose. Our project aims to sensitize the audience and encourage urban initiatives in defence against excessive tree felling . By using creative ways, the show wants to inspire (invigorate) resistance and to motivate citizens to connect and network, be proactive in the defence of trees and forests.
The performance is part of a wider project that is also a case study in the Teaching Artistry for Social Impact online course on one of the world’s largest creative learning platforms, kadenze.com – available to everyone and free of charge.
DRVEĆE PLEŠE was awarded by the FIXING THE FUTURE program of Austrian Radio Ö1/ORF 2021 and presented at the Innovation Festival “Market of the Future” in Graz, from 1. -3, Ocober, 2021.
The performance and project Dancing Trees is the inspiration for the European cooperation project – TREES, which aims to transfer to the European level methods of raising environmental awareness through the use of theater and art. DAH Theater is the coordinator of the Project, supported by the European Union, which includes partners from Greece, the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, Germany and Norway.
“Trees are Earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.” Rabindranath Tagore
SPECTATORS IMPRESSIONS
The show is magical, I really felt some special connection with these wonderful people who performed in the show, and I started to look at the trees in a completely different way after the show. It was extraordinary.
I didn’t know there was a tree that is 9000 years old. That I learn. I actually knew we were destroying them a lot, and I kept lying to myself that we weren’t destroying them that much.
Definitely, there is no activism without art.
This is a fantastic wake up call.
Artistic initiatives are great for ecology, it is important to send a message that works primarily on an emotional level.
Art is a great tool in general to address many other problems as well. Perhaps the most direct way.
The eyes are the most important for perception, that is the first- you see something. I think that a larger number of people are visually orientated, it is much more impressive than having the text in your hands and thus informing yourself. Just compare it with tonight’s text that talks about how trees were cut down, how painful it is, how old the trees are, why they cut them down. When you also hear the music that accompanies the actions and lifts us, when you see the dance, and all these combined into one fantastic interaction with the audience, I am fascinated. Imagine someone who comes by chance and doesn’t think much about nature, and just happens to be in a place like this in the middle of Belgrade, of course that person will completely change the state of mind.
It’s important to give this topic a platform where it can be talked about. Art can bring the problem closer to its citizens. Science has a less effective way, because it talk in codes, and it is hard to understand it.
Yes, I think that this is the right way to reach a lot of people. If just could happen more often. It is easier to reach me personally with this story, than with some other. You simply touched me emotionally with words and actions and I literally experienced what you were telling me, lived through it.
Direction and Dramaturgy: Jadranka Anđelić i Dijana Milošević
Performers: Vladimir Čubrilo, Đurđija Jelenković / Katarina Bućić, Ivana Milenović Popović, Ivana Milovanović, Ivan Nikolić, Miona Petrović, Zoran Vasiljević
Texts/Sources: Diana Beresford Kroeger „To Speak for the Trees“; Peter Wohlleben „Tajni život drveća“; Hermann Hesse „O drveću“; Manoel Penna „Drveće ulice“; Alfonso Romano Sant’Anna „Šumska ljubav“; Miona Petrović „Poruka drveću“; ekoloska istraživanja
Music: Ivana Stefanović
Electronics: Dragan Mitrić
Voices: Ivana Milenović Popović, Ivan Nikolić, Neša Paripović, Miona Petrović, Milan Popović, Vid Popović, Aleksandar Vasiljević, Andrija Vasiljević, Zoran Vasiljević
Vocal: Ljubica Damčević
Sound Design: Zoran Jerković
Video, Mapping: Jelena Rubil
Costum: Ivana Samolov
Object doll: Snežana Arnautović
Light design: Milomir Dimitrijević, Radovan Samolov
Producers: Nataša Novaković, Milica Petrović
Dierectors Assistants: Ana Bošković i Rumena Šopova
Technical Production: Milomir Dimitrijević, Radovan Samolov
Tehnichal support: Muzej savremene umetnosti Beograd
Sound recording, Tehnichal assistance: Zoran Vasiljević
Translation from portuguese: Jovan Tatić i Jadranka Anđelić
PR: Tanja Rapp
Social Networks: Aleksandra Atanacković
Finances: Dragana Živanović
Photography: Djordje Tomić
Graphic Design: škart
In collaboration with BELGRADE DANCE INSTITUTE. [IUI]
Thanks to Museum of Contemporary Arts Belgrade, UK Parobrod and Ivana Abramović.
Special thanks to composer Ivana Stefanovic.
Supported by
ITAC – Climate Impact; Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs; International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe Institute, and other partners: http://www.goethe.de/relieffund; City of Belgrade – Secretary for Culture.
Further perfroming suported by
